Country Living Series

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Ant and the Grasshopper

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself.
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NEW VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Actretroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

How dare you all call yourselves Christians. What bible are you reading? The one I read states to love your neighbor as yourself, despite the fact the your neighbor brought you to a country against your will, placed you into slavery for hundreds of years, will not apologize or even acknowledge the error of their ways, and has the nerve to be threaten by the fact that you may finally have a piece of this so-called dream they call American. GOD have mercy on your souls.

The post from “Anonymous” IS idiotic, but there is also a point to be made.

(Genesis 4:8-10) Whenever anyone raises the question of being their brother’s keeper, it is almost invariable that they are doing so in order to disguise a hatred that is in their own heart—even as Cain sought to disguise (and distract from) his own murder of his younger brother, Abel.

God would have none of it, and He will have none of it in anyone else’s case, either. Instead, He drives a stake right through the center of the heart of the matter, confronting Cain with his sin—and He will do the same with anyone else as well. Better that you confront yourselves, so that He doesn’t have to.

Far too many people use that verse to distract from the fact that they don’t want to help anyone—no matter how they got into their predicament. Please be certain that that is not you. It is no sin to expect someone to do for themselves, but it IS a sin to hate—and even more of a sin to seek to distract from that hate instead of confronting it.

We have a reponsibility as Christians to both provide for our own, AND to be helpful to those have fallen on hard times.

However, too many have SADLY decided to be like the grasshopper in the second story, and whine about not having enough, and demanding everyone take from the one who was wise with their money, which makes it difficult if not impossible to for the one who is wise with their money to be generous to those who really are in need and aren't just a bunch of freeloaders.

I belive, as the Apostle Paul said, if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat either. By that I don't mean if he is unemployed, as many are right now...the word for work is "occupied or diligent" in the greek language...if he's a sofa spud, he should go hungry. it would do him some good. I prefer to only help those with a good work ethic because I know the help i give them won't be spent on lotto tickets, beer, pot, or other non-essentials.

I think we have a generation of people who have started to think, "why bother working hard? it's easier to stay home, play playstation, and get a check every month". It's a slap in the face to those who have genuinely fallen on hard times and need a hand up for a seaon for many others to look on our social services as a lifestyle.

I personally give money, food, etc. to many people who live around me...packing up food boxes out of my own pantry, giving someone money when they are in need...but when I know someone is constantly spending money foolishly, and drinking whatever they earn (or smoking it), then heck no, I'm not going to give them anything. Their attitude and lifestyle needs to change before they will benefit from any help. we live just above the poverty line ourselves. I know many people on welfare who bought their kids a wii for Christmas (nice, wish we could have one) and who cheer when the government announces it wants to stick it to the rich...not realizing that the rich are the ones that employ you (if they bother having a job). That's where the backlash is coming from.

Patrice, your wisdom and common sense never stop amazing me! If more people had your wisdom and common sense all of us would be better people.

This story/article is a perfect example of what my brother saw first hand in Chico, Ca when he was in college. While he worked 1 to 2 jobs in college to pay for a crummy little apt. his neighbors in their 20's same age as him who were more than able to work would on a regular basis openly admit that "why should they work when the government would pay them more money to have kids, sit at home, watch tv and live off of other people's hard work" meaning welfare checks.

Liberal policies hurt us again and again and create whining spoiled victims or at least brain wash some people to think of themselves as a victim. Anyone who is physically able I say get off your duff, shut your mouth and get to work anyway you can and contribute like the rest of hard working people.

I am a born again bible believing Christian who has no problem with this story. I do not want to toot my own horn as to what I give of my money, resources or my time so it's not stated, but can explain if someone has a problem with my point of view.

To "Anonymous" above with the idiotic misrepresentation of Christianity: If ants routinely give of their stores to grasshoppers (true ones - those who *will not* work as opposed to those who *cannot*) - they do a huge injustice to the recipients of their "good will", as it rewards bad behavior. The ant would be an accessory after the fact to the grasshopper's sloth. When the government imposes this, this is nothing short of robbery (with special circumstances of threat of force). My guess is that Anonymous above is a sniveling crybaby of a grasshopper who is trying to shame us ants into supporting him. Get off your duff and get a job!

2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread."

I hate to stoop too far in reply to a stupid comment, but IIRC, the author is white, and the hero of this story is a black ant. How is that racist? Because they disparage the green race? You, sir, are an idiot!

The more the pot is stirred, the more the pot is stirred. Very few, if any, will have the will to change until it is thrust upon them. Most people ignore truth, wisdom, and the Word. Sad, but the "awake" and "aware" are few and far between.